spelling bee
noun
a spelling competition won by the individual or team spelling the greatest number of words correctly; spelldown.
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What Does The “Bee” In Spelling Bee Mean Exactly?As spellers from across the country and around the globe gather to take part in the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, let’s try to settle a basic question: Where does the bee in “spelling bee” come from? Bee is derived from the Old English bēn meaning “a prayer, a favor.” By the late eighteenth century, bee had become commonly associated with the British dialect form, been or …
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
spelldown, speller, speller-divider, spellican, spelling, spelling bee, spelling pronunciation, spelling reform, spellman, spellman, francis joseph, spelt
Origin of spelling bee
First recorded in 1870–75
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for spelling bee
British Dictionary definitions for spelling bee
spelling bee
noun
a contest in which players are required to spell words according to orthographic conventions
Word Origin for spelling bee
C19: from bee ²
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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